Send Out Your Devils
by MadGirl-SpaceGirl-StarGirl
Summary: The conflict between the Avengers has left the team in pieces. To make matters worse T'Challa sources have failed to remove the Hydra programming from Bucky's head, leaving everyone on edge. However, the return of an old ally with a new mission may be the thing to fix the fractured team and the girl that it leads them to may be the answer to fixing Bucky's broken mind and more...
1. On your left

**Hey guys so this is my avengers story.**

 **Just a couple things to let you know:**

 **\- this is kind of au because it's set after civil war but just use your imagination that somehow the people on team cap, were released without charges and the accords were scrapped.**

 **\- I haven't actually seen civil war all the way through so if I say stuff that's wrong or doesn't fit it's just how it works in this universe.**

 **\- I have changed some of the backstories just because I can and it makes more sense for my story so please don't hate me guys.**

 **\- I have tried to keep them in character or how I understand their characters to be but if they seem out of character to you guys then I'm sorry and I hope you can still enjoy it.**

 **With that lets do this!**

* * *

"On your left"

"Aww come on man!" Sam Wilson groaned as Steve Rogers raced past him, just as he did every time he crossed Sam on a run. He didn't know why the Cap felt the need to let him know he was outpacing him, as Sam was more than aware.

After all there weren't many people who could keep up with Captain America.

Except the guy who tore past Sam a second later.

Except James "Bucky" Barnes didn't say a word.

He just sprinted ahead to catch up with Steve and then falling into step beside him. From behind them, it appeared Barnes muttered something to Steve which caused Steve to laugh, turn and call

"Keep up Sammy!"

"Hey yo, kiss my ass Captain Steroids!" Sam shouted back and he heard Steve laugh before he and Barnes took off running again.

"Go runnin' with Captain America they said" Sam grunted picking up his pace a little.

"It'll be fun they said."

* * *

"Rogers leave you in the dust again Sam?" Natasha smirked as Sam walked into one of the many living rooms in the tower where Natasha was curled up like a cat in a leather armchair a bowl of strawberries in her lap and the morning news on the TV.

"Shouldn't you be spying on someone or kicking Barton's ass in sparring again?" Sam shot back as he went to the adjoining kitchen and grabbed himself a bottle of water.

"Pretty sure Clint is still pouting from last time and there's no one round here interesting enough to spy on." sighed Natasha with mock boredom and Sam chuckled. He liked the Black Widow. For a double crossing, side changing, ass kicking super spy with a more than shady past, Natasha Romanoff could take a joke and had a wicked sense of humour.

"Stark gonna come up for air today? Or is he gonna stay in the lab with Banner? Again." Sam asked as he wiped a hand across his forehead and took a swig of the water. A slight frown creased Romanoff's face at the mention of Tony Stark.

Stark had essentially been M.I.A since the team had done battle against each other and he had discovered the truth about Barnes and his parents. Even after finally hearing Steve out about Barnes's brainwashing and his inability to control his actions, Stark was still struggling to come to terms with Barnes presence around the facility especially after T'Challa's resources had been unable to completely remove the winter soldier programming from Bucky's head.

"I don't know. Want me to let you know if he shows his face?" Natasha finally responded to Sam and Sam shook his head.

"Nah. Gonna hit the shower. Don't you go spyin' on me while I'm gettin' undressed now Romanoff." Sam smirked as he joked at Natasha who smirked back and said in a fake simpering voice

"But I just cant control myself around you!"

Sam chuckled as he walked out of the room and down the corridor towards his room and his main focus at that moment, his shower.

As he walked down the corridor he saw Wanda hovering at the end of the corridor.

"Wanda" he said as he approached and she looked up and gave a hesitant smile.

"Sam" she said in acknowledgment and Sam gave her a kind smile. He liked the witch and he for one was not afraid of her powers. It was like Steve had said; she was a kid. A little bit damaged and a little bit lost after everything she had experienced in the last two years. It appeared that losing her brother, the accident in Lagos and her experience on the Raft had sent Wanda Maximoff into something of a drift. She had barely used her powers since the airport battle and usually kept out of everyone's way, only really speaking to Vision, Clint or Steve that Sam had noticed.

"What're you doing kiddo?" he asked and Wanda shrugged saying in soft accented tone

"Nothing."

It was then that Sam realised who's room she had been hovering outside of and he gave a knowing smile.

"You know you could just talk to him."

Wanda blushed slightly and shook her head.

"You should" Sam insisted "Miserable bastard actually likes you far as I can tell."

"Mr Wilson" Sam turned to find Vision standing behind him "I see you went out to run with Mr Rogers again"

"Define with" Sam muttered turning his head to find that Wanda had taken the opportunity to disappear from view. Then, when he turned his head to look back at Vision he found that he too had vanished from sight.

"Ok I see how it is" Sam muttered to himself as he headed into his room "guess it's leave Sam Wilson behind day." he may have sounded bitter but he was only joking with himself. He didn't blame Wanda for her distant attitude lately and Vision was, well - Vision.

15 minutes later he had showered and changed out of his running kit and was sat on the edge of his bed scrolling through his phone.

There was a knock at his door.

"Yeah?" Sam called and it was Steve who opened the door and stood leaning in the doorway.

"How was your run?" Steve asked with a knowing smile and Sam cheerfully flipped him off, to which Steve chuckled and said

"Mind if I come in?"

"Sure"

Steve walked in and sat down beside Sam, rubbing his hands together like he was anxious about something.

"What is it man?"

Steve sighed and ran a hand over his head.

"Worried about Buck."

"You're always worried about Buck." Sam said and Steve chuckled tiredly.

"You got that right" he agreed and then shrugged, rolling his neck slightly and continuing "I don't know man. T'Challa couldn't get that stuff out of his head. He's never gonna stop beating himself up over the stuff they made him do. He says he's sleeping but I can tell he's not. I just-" he sighed again "He's my best friend. I need to help him."

Before Sam could answer, Vision suddenly appeared through the wall behind them and Sam jumped

"Jesus man! We have doors you know." Sam exclaimed and Vision merely looked at him.

"My apologies Mr Wilson. But I was looking for Mr Rogers."

"It's Steve."

"Yes. Steve." Vision said the name like it was foreign to him. "You have a visitor Steve. He's in the fourth floor conference room. I left him with security. He and his companion didn't give names."

Steve frowned at the information that Vision gave him and got to his feet.

"You comin'?" he asked Sam who immediately got to his feet also.

"Let's go."

* * *

When they entered the room that Vision had told them it was Sam who spoke first.

"You gotta be kidding me!"

Then it was Steve's turn to make a shocked sound that came out in one word

"Fury?!"

* * *

 **Ta da,**

 **Ok so I know not much happened but this is just a starter chapter to get us back in with everyone.**

 **I promise more action in the next couple of chapters!**

 **Review or pm me your thoughts, feedback, ideas and suggestions I love hearing from people and it makes me more inspired to write!**

 **Also, I'm just a bit curious to see what people would prefer to see (no promises though) so let me know which out of the following you may ship:**

 **Steve/Natasha**  
 **Sam/Natasha**  
 **Wanda/Clint**  
 **Wanda/Bucky**  
 **Steve/Wanda**

 **I'm just curious to see what shippers are out there!**

 **If you like, check out my other stories!**

 **I write when I can but I have exam prep at the moment so that is less often than I would like but I do my best.**

 **More soon.**

 **Geronimo xx**


	2. Captain America vs a five year old

"Fury!?" Steve exclaimed as the man himself, Nick Fury accompanied as ever by Maria Hill, stood up from where he had been seated at the conference table.

"Captain" Nick acknowledged as Maria nodded in greeting "And Mr Wilson, Falcon wasn't it?"

"Yes sir" Sam said still looking beyond confused as to what the former head of Shield was doing there.

"I will give Stark this; the man has style" Nick said appreciatively looking around the room.

"All due respect Sir" Steve began, his automatic response being to still refer to Fury as Sir "But what are you doing here?"

"Got a proposal for the 'Avengers'" if it was possible for someone to put air quotation marks around words without actually moving their hands Nick Fury had just managed it "If you guys are still in that business."

"Depends on what it is." Sam said at the same time that Steve said bluntly and with an obvious tone of disapproval

"You got Shield back up and running then?"

Fury shrugged

"There was no way something like Shield was ever going to die completely Captain. Now we can stand here and talk about our very different organisations and why they do or do not or should or should not exist or we can talk about what I would like your team to assist mine with. If you cant do that Captain then I'll take my business elsewhere but quite frankly I think you'll want to hear what Commander Hill and I have for you."

There was a slightly tense pause before Steve nodded slowly and gestured for his former boss and the man's second in command to follow him. Outside the room they found Vision and Steve said

"Get the others to the lab"

* * *

Knock knock knock.

"James"

Bucky looked up from, and closed his notebook.

"Come in" he said gruffly.

He watched his door as it opened to reveal Wanda Maximoff looking at him, her fingers fiddling with the fraying edge of the flared sleeves of her cardigan. Bucky straightened up, his posture automatically straightening to something resembling military attention.

"Wanda" he said inclining his head towards her.

"James, Vision told me to come and get you. Steve wants everyone in the la- are you alright?" Wanda interrupted herself with a question as she looked at his face.

Bucky guessed his eyes must look slightly red rimmed and that was why she asked. He hadn't been crying but he had come close as he was writing in the book the latest thing he remembered. It was a young memory, he could only have been ten or so years old. In his head he saw his young self crying as a man he recognised from another memory as his father, dug a hole in what must have been their backyard. Lying on the ground beside the hole, partially covered by a blanket was a dog. A boxer. Past Bucky had been crying and though present Bucky was not he had nearly driven himself to tears trying desperately to remember the name of the dog he had clearly loved so much. But try as he might the name evaded him.

"I'm fine" he muttered tersely in response and Wanda quickly looked down and away from his face.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude." Wanda said, her accent thickening slightly possibly out of worry, turning to leave.

"Wanda" Bucky said and she paused and looked back at him "I'm sorry" taking a deep breath he pushed a small smile onto his face "I'm ok. Really."

Wanda gave a small smile back and said

"Ok. We're in the lab when you're ready." and then she left.

As soon as she was gone the smile vanished from Bucky's face.

He wasn't ok.

And part of him was sure he never would be.

* * *

"Shield had to go underground after Miss Romanoff released all the files. We never stopped being operational but we had to go back to being invisible."

Fury addressed everyone in the room. Everyone besides Thor was present. Clint Barton had arrived back about five minutes after Fury and was now leaning against the wall beside Wanda playing absentmindedly with a loose arrowhead.

Maria spoke up where Nick stopped.

"Releasing the files started the process of dismantling Hydra but it was far from over. Hydra is still very much operational in parts of the world."

Bucky clenched his jaw slightly as he felt at least three pairs of eyes dart to him and then away as Nick continued

"Recently we've picked up some chatter about this girl" Nick pressed a button and a projection flashed up into the middle of the room.

It showed what was clearly a grainy CCTV image. The only way they could tell it was a girl was that Nick had told them as much. She had a hood pulled up over her head and what looked like a scarf or bandana of some kind which covered the lower half of her face.

"This is the clearest image we have of a Hydra asset. The only name we have for her at the moment is what we're picking up on chatter and they're calling her Ghost."

Stark, Sam, Clint and Banner all snorted slightly at that and Fury gave a wry and rare chuckle.

"Yeah I know but that's what we've got. No name, no history and no facial recognition because of that damn thing on her face. What we do know is that all our most recent information on Hydra in the U.S is all about finding this girl. And" here Fury paused and thirteen new pictures flashed up. Eight men and five women. "we believe that she has come into contact with all these people since arriving in the U.S."

"You 'believe'?" Tony interrupted "You don't know?"

"We have CCTV of her interacting with all of them or coming into contact with all of them. But when we pulled them in, none of them have any recollection at all of who she is, what they said or did or ever meeting her. What we do know for sure is that these three" three new images flashed up, two women and a man "All had sustained contact with her and all three ended up in the hospital suffering from some kind of amnesia, vomiting, headaches and vision loss. They're all ok now but again none of them remember a damn thing."

As Fury spoke Maria put a hand up to her ear piece and left the room abruptly. Steve finally spoke up

"What exactly is it you want from us here?"

"Look long story short from what we know, this girl is gifted, powerful and Hydra want her which means we want her more. But if she is anywhere as powerful as our information is telling us Shield cant do this alone. We want you to help us track her down and bring her in."

"Look all I'm hearing is a bunch of vague guesses and what ifs and maybes." Bruce said sceptically just as Maria rushed back into the room.

"Sir we just got a solid lead on our ghost."

"Where?"

"Hell's Kitchen. Local PD are waiting for us."

Fury turned to look at the others in the room.

"Looks like I need an answer now. Are you in or out?"

* * *

In the end it was Steve, Natasha, Clint and at Steve's insistence Bucky who came with Nick and Maria to the police Station on the outskirts of Hell's Kitchen. They were shown to a room in the back which was sign posted

FAMILY INTERVIEW ROOM

The Detective who took them through was named Crane and it was he who Nick addressed as they walked

"Tell me what I'm looking at here."

"We got a report of another woman who ended up in hospital. Amnesia, all the rest. Did some digging saw her walking with your girl on CCTV. Did a search of the area and found Clara. The hospitalised woman's five year old daughter." Detective Crane indicated the room behind him. "She's in there but she's barely talking. Don't know if she's traumatised, scared or just shy but the most we got out of her is that" and here he checked his notebook and read out "The ghost lady was sad."

Crane looked from Fury to Hill to the Steve to the others and then back to Steve.

"How exactly do you want to handle this?"

Nick looked at Steve and said

"I think you should try."

"Me?" Steve looked surprise "Sir all due respect but why?"

Natasha snorted and said

"Dude. Seriously? When are you gonna remember that your Captain freakin' America? Little kids love you."

Steve looked somewhat embarrassed but squared his shoulders and said

"I'll give it a shot but I don't know guys..."

He walked forwards and walked into the room and Natasha turned to Detective Crane and said with a rare but genuine full on smile

"Please tell me you have an observation room."

"Right this way" Crane said and Clint chuckled

"Captain America vs a five year old girl. This I gotta see."

* * *

Steve took in the scene in the Family Interview Room.

A female uniformed officer was crouched down beside a little girl who was playing with a stack of building blocks. The little girl wore a pair of dungarees over a striped pink and white t-shirt and her little hooded sweatshirt was lying discarded on a chair behind her. Pink, purple and white sneakers were on her little feet and her fluffy blonde hair was tied in two plaited pigtails with little white bows around them.

The little girl, Clara, Steve remembered Crane had told them her name, had now stopped playing with the blocks and was blinking her wide blue eyes up at Steve.

"Hi" Steve said a little awkwardly and he could practically see the shit eating grins that Natasha and Clint were both bound to be baring.

"Hi" Clara whispered back.

"Do you uh, do you mind if I sit down?" he asked and she nodded at him, so Steve took a seat on the floor across from her as the female officer got up and retreated to a corner.

"You're Captain Amewica." Steve was surprised that the little girl was talking. " _Looks like Natasha was right_ " he thought ruefully.

"Yeah" Steve smiled kindly at her "You're a smart little lady. Most people don't recognise me without my shield. Hey you know, my real name is Steve."

"I Clawa" the little girl lisped quietly and Steve smiled again extending his hand forwards.

"Well it is nice to meet you Miss Clara. Is it ok if I ask you some questions?" Steve had no idea what he was doing really, but he figured a good start would be to copy all those cop shows that Jill on the front desk recommended he watch. Start at the beginning and ask what you want to know.

Clara nodded and sat back with her legs splayed out in front of her, her little elbows resting on her knees.

"Clara do you remember a girl talking to your mom earlier today? Before the police found you."

Clara nodded. A yes.

"Did she tell you her name?"

A shake of the head. No.

"Did she tell you anything about her?"

Another no.

"What about her face. Do you think you can tell me what she looked like?"

"She was a ghost lady"

"A ghost - ghost lady? What do you mean sweetheart?"

"She was all white an' she looked like a ghost. Her hairw was all white, and herw face and herw mouth and herw eyes."

Steve thought for a minute and was about to ask another question when Clara suddenly spoke up

"She did something to mommy."

"What?" Steve leant in a little and said as gently as he could but with slight urgency "Clara what did she do to your mom?"

"She made her fowget."

"Ma-made her forget? How?"

Clara bit her bottom lip before scooting closer to Steve and kneeling up so she was level to his face. Steve stayed as still as he could so as not to spook her as she put a little hand on either side of his face, resting on his temples.

"She made mommy fowget. Like this."

And then she moved away from him.

"Clara. Hey Clara this is really important. Do you remember the last place you saw the ghost lady go? or did she say where she was going?"

"She asked mommy how to go to Chicago. And she took mommy's puwse."

* * *

As soon as he heard that Nick Fury barked out to Maria

"Get me everything we have on Chicago and Hydra and get me someone to track those credit cards!"

"On it" Maria said at once and she left the room, closely followed by Natasha.

* * *

"Did she say anything else Clara? Anything? Even if you don't think it's important."

Clara seemed to think about it for a moment before saying

"She called me not my name."

"What did she call you?"

"Katie."

* * *

 **Ta da next bit finished!**

 **Hope it's ok.**

 **Let me know what you think, what you like, what you don't, what you want to see happen!**

 **Follow, Favourite, and review if you like it or even if you don't lol but don't be mean.**

 **More soon.**

 **Geronimo xx**


	3. Little miss ghost

"Sir we got a hit"

Maria and Natasha had just re entered the observation room, Natasha with a laptop in hand. She put it on the table and pointed at the screen.

"Chloe Myran's credit card was used to buy a one way ticket to Chicago Midway International Airport." Maria said and Natasha rounded on Detective Crane.

"When did you get the report about her ending up at the hospital?"

"Just over an hour ago." Crane said. As he spoke, Steve slipped into the room having left Clara with the female officer.

"Factor in time for her to be found, taken to hospital and the police contacted, she's got at least an hour and a half head start on us. She's on a non stop flight so that's just over two hours. She could already nearly be there, there's no way stopping that plane now."

"Looks like we're goin' to Chicago" Nick said, already in motion as he addressed the others "Suit up, I can have a chopper here in five."

Clint and Natasha followed Fury from the room and Steve was about to follow suit when he glanced back at Bucky. Since entering the observation room, Bucky had taken up a solitary position, leaning against the far wall, his arms folded, watching the events unfold for Steve in the interview room with Clara.

"You up for this Buck?" Steve asked and Bucky looked up, clearly having been lost in thought.

"What?"

"You don't have to come with us, I shouldn't have made you come in the first plac-"

"Steve." Bucky cut him off and then said "It's ok. I'm good."

"You sure?"

Bucky took a breath and then the corner of his mouth twitched into a slight smile.

"Suit up Cap. I'm good."

* * *

"We're about ten minutes out" Nick informed the others having just been told the same thing by the pilot. Maria pulled out a laptop and opened it on her lap so that all the others could see the video feed playing.

"This is the most recent sighting we had. Our ghost got off the plane at Midway about 20 minutes ago. This is her leaving the south terminal, still not a clear enough picture for facial rec."

They all watched as their mystery quarry, scarf firmly tied around the bottom half of her face, pulled a dark hood up over hair that, on the grainy cctv footage was a murky shade of grey. She headed south until she had disappeared out of view.

"Chicago PD are sending footage from every camera in the area to us so we can find where she went."

"What's our objective here Fury?" Steve asked and the younger man looked at him.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Are we here to help her or arrest her?" Steve asked bluntly.

"We're not cops Captain." Nick chuckled a little darkly and Steve sighed

"I mean are we here as friends or not."

"So far she's not our enemy. But maliciously or not she's put four civilians in hospital and she has some kind of connection to Hydra. So no we are not here as friends. But we're not doing this as enemies either."

Steve bit his tongue so that he didn't bite back at the classically cryptic remark from Fury.

"Sir, another hit on the card. She's on a train heading to..." there was a pause as Maria clicked a few keys and then said loud enough for the pilot to hear also "Fulton River District!"

Nick immediately started barking out orders.

"Get Chicago PD tell them I want every cctv camera feed from that area fed straight to hq, radio Freedman tell him we need someone to hack into any private circuits, I want eyes all over that district and I want it fifteen minutes ago!"

* * *

"Last information puts her in a five block radius. Satellite images and information confirms six warehouses, two abandoned, three residential blocks and a condemned office building that used to be apartments."

Maria Hill's calm voice spoke into their ear pieces as Steve and Bucky prepared to search one of the abandoned warehouses. It was starting to get dark which meant there was no one around which suited Bucky just fine. The less people around the better.

Two blocks over Clint and Natasha were searching one of the other warehouses.

"What I want to know" Steve said to his friend as they methodically searched all the spaces in the warehouse "Is how you go from this girl getting Clara's mom to 'forget' to her ending up in hospital? What can this girl do?"

"Don't know" was Bucky's only response.

Suddenly Clint's voice called through their ear pieces

"Got her! She leaving the warehouse on Draven Street, south side, heading your way."

"On it!" Steve said and turned to the exit that would bring him closest to where Clint was talking about. Bucky was already ahead of him, charging through the double doors and leaping up to a first floor window of another warehouse.

"Guys she's fast. Like, really fast." came Clint's frustrated voice.

Bucky knew Steve was behind him as he crossed the first floor of the old warehouse but he kept going listening to the voices of both Commander Hill and Clint. Romanoff was keeping quiet, probably as focused as he was on the task at hand though probably for very different reasons. To Romanoff, Barton and Steve this was just another mission, albeit an interesting one, but Bucky wanted to prove to himself and most of all to Steve and Stark that he could handle himself. Not in the physical sense, they were more than aware that he could take care of himself, no, he wanted to prove that even with the shit in his head he could keep himself in check.

"Subject last seen on the second floor of the office building on 9th" Natasha's cold and clinical voice finally spoke up over coms.

"The roof" Steve said as he drew level with Bucky and Bucky punched through the nearest skylight and the two of them made it to the roof.

"Go round!" Bucky said and Steve shot him a look before begrudgingly agreeing and peeling off to the left. Bucky took a short run up, pushed off the edge of the roof and caught onto a third floor window sill with his (new) metal arm. Gritting his teeth he caught hold with his other hand and hoisted himself up. Perched on the window sill, he slipped the blade of his largest knife between the window and it's frame and made quick work of shifting the lock before slipping inside.

Bucky pulled a glock from one of his holsters and checked it was loaded.

 _"Just in case"_ he thought to himself _"not here as a friend and don't know what this gal can do_ "

Just as he was checking the gun he heard the slightest creak to his right.

There she was.

Creeping round the corner from a staircase was the girl, hood still up, lower face still covered.

He took aim and called

"Stop! Put your hands up!"

It went against all his training to give a warning. If he was still the Winter Soldier he would have shot her on sight.

"But that's not you anymore" he thought with gritted teeth as he watched the girl freeze with her back to him. Slowly, the girl began to raise her hands. As she did so and without moving his gun, Bucky spoke into his coms unit

"Got her. By the south stairwell on the third floor."

Fury's voice came back loud and clear

"Restrain her, keep her their, the rest of you back him up now! We don't know what she can do."

"Keep your hands up and turn around" Bucky growled and the girl slowly complied, turning to face him, hands encased in fingerless leather gloves held above her head.

"Don't shoot me." she sounded remarkably calm but Bucky could see her eyes telling a different story. They were wide, dilated and showed her fear.

"Don't make me shoot you" he countered and they could both tell he meant it.

"Buck?" Steve's voice came from behind him.

"You got cuffs Cap?"

"I do" that was Romanoff. Wordlessly he extended a hand behind him, without looking away from the girl and caught the cuffs that she tossed to him.

"You got her?" he asked.

"Got it Buck."

Bucky knew without looking that both Steve and Romanoff would be stood at the ready, Romanoff with one of her assortment of weapons aimed at the girl before him. Only now did Bucky lower his weapon and slip it back into it's holster.

"Don't give us a reason" he muttered as he walked forwards with the cuffs. The girl ducked her head meekly and nodded.

That should have been his first clue.

But Bucky was not the winter soldier right then. His mind was not completely focused on his mission.

As he reached for the girl's right hand, Steve's voice calling out to him should have been his second.

"Bucky!"

But it was too late.

* * *

"Bucky!"

Steve watched as the girl, moving unnaturally fast, twisted out of Bucky's grip, under his arms and twisted him round. Bucky was now facing him and Natasha and the girl's hands were grasping either side of his head at his temples.

There was no way to use his shield without hitting Buck, and looking at Natasha he knew she had no clear shot either.

Steve watched as Bucky's eyes rolled back in his head.

But what happened next took him completely by surprise.

* * *

What Bucky felt, felt like it took an age but really it lasted a matter of seconds.

He felt the girl's hands either side of his head.

Felt a warmth gather under her hands that then seemed to seep into his mind. He felt 'it' whatever it was sink beneath his skin and into his mind.

'No' was his first thought. He couldn't have this happen. Not again.

'Help me' a voice drifted into his mind. It wasn't his though. That wasn't a voice he recognised.

The heat whatever it was seeped deeper into his mind, making it foggy and unclear.

And suddenly memories were flooding to the service.

Memories Hydra had allowed him to keep.

Memories he had gotten back after he escaped them.

Memories he didn't know he had.

Hydra.

Family.

Friends.

War.

Killing.

Death.

Pain.

Hydra.

Pain.

Dimly he heard a short, pained gasp.

A girl's voice say "oh god"

The hands on his head disappeared. The heat in his brain disappeared.

He heard a pair of feet stumbling backwards.

The same voice begin to say "I'm so sorry"

But the sentence was cut short as there was a crackle of electricity and then the thud of a body hitting the floor.

* * *

Even as the girl hit the floor, convulsing slightly from the electricity coursing through from the arrow attached to her shoulder.

Steve and Natasha's heads both snapped round to see Clint perched on the window ledge his bow still drawn.

"Surprise" he said dryly before hopping down into the room.

Bucky had staggered away from the girl and collapsed into the closest wall hand pressed to his head. Steve was at his side in an instant checking on his oldest friend as Clint and Natasha hurried over to the collapsed form of the girl who now lay unconscious on the floor. Clint pulled the arrow away from her as Natasha fastened the cuffs around her wrists behind her back.

"You got her?" Natasha asked as Clint made to hoist the girl into his arms.

"Course I do."

As soon as he lifted her he staggered slightly under the weight.

"You sure?" smirked Natasha

"Shut up she's heavier than she looks. Course I got it." Clint huffed before Steve came over and effortlessly swung the girl out of Clint's arms and up over his shoulder.

"Hey I said I had it!" Clint called as Steve walked away, the girl over one shoulder, Bucky's arm round his other as he helped his friend away.

As Clint and Natasha followed after the Winter Soldier and Captain America, Natasha muttered darkly

"Time to find out who little miss ghost is."

* * *

 **Ta da!**

 **Hope this was ok!**

 **I'm really worried no one is gonna like this idk!**

 **Please let me know what you think; good or constructive! Follow, favourite and review guys!**

 **More soon.**

 **Geronimo xx**


	4. Short, pale and freaky

"Well Mr Barnes, whatever she attempted to do to you, there appear to be no lasting effects."

The doctor rolled his seat away from where Bucky was sat on the table.

Steve was stood in the corner with his arms folded, his eyes on the fact that Bucky was gripping the edge of the table hard enough for the knuckles on his flesh hand to be turning white and for the table under his metal hand to be creaky ominously.

"If you feel like anything changes come back" the Doctor said as he gathered his bag and then he left the room.

"You ok?" Steve asked eyeing his friend concernedly.

"Doc said I was fine" Bucky muttered tersely and Steve nearly rolled his eyes.

"Didn't ask the Doc, I asked you. Are you ok?"

There was a long silence.

"She was in my head man." Bucky said quietly, eyes cast down. Steve didn't say a word, afraid that if he spoke at all, Bucky would shut down and clam up again. There was another silence before Bucky swallowed violently and said in a voice that sounded like he was going to be sick.

"Like, I could hear her-feel her in my head."

Another quiet moment.

"A-and" Bucky let out a breath before saying "I don't know what she did. But I-I wanted to help her. I was going to help her if Barton didn't take her out."

Steve suddenly frowned.

"But Barton didn't stop her"

"The hell are you talking about? Barton shot her and stopped her." Bucky said but Steve adamantly shook his head.

"Buck I know what I saw. Clint didn't stop her, she let you go."

"He's right" Natasha's voice spoke up and the two super soldiers looked around to see her standing in the doorway in her civilian clothes "She stopped whatever she was doing all on her own. Clint didn't take her down till after she let you go."

"Why?" Bucky asked no one in particular and Natasha shrugged.

"I don't know. Add that to the list of questions Fury has."

After a confused look from Steve, Natasha explained herself

"She's awake."

* * *

 _20 minutes earlier_

The first thing she did after waking up was keep her eyes closed and stay as still as possible.

She did everything she could to maintain the illusion of unconsciousness.

She kept her breathing even.

Her body nor her face twitched at all.

The second thing was to scan her surroundings. It wasn't an exact science and she couldn't quite remember how to do it but even though it took a moment, sure enough the mist did it's job.

She wasn't a hundred per cent sure about what she was feeling but she got a pretty good idea.

The room appeared to be bare, sans the chair she was lying in.

There was a bright light pressing against her eyelids, she didn't need the mist to tell her that. Of the four walls, one appeared to be made of a different density material than the others though she couldn't tell why.

Her wrists were fastened to the arms of the chair by some kind of metal restraints though her legs remained untethered. And her hands. Her hands seemed to be encased in metal blocks, secured so tightly around her two extremities that she couldn't have moved her fingers or hands even if she hadn't been playing possum.

Now was the tricky part.

 _"Focus"_ she thought attempting to let a calm wash over her that really wasn't working _"Focus"_

Nothing happened.

"Come on, come on, come ooooon" she thought, sheer desperation taking over from methodical calm now as she felt every muscle in her body, but particularly her hands tense to an almost painful extreme.

CRRRAAACCKKK!

The restraints shattered.

The metal blocks cracked open.

She was free.

Well, free of the chair, but it was a start.

Eyes suddenly flashing open she was up and heading towards the door before she even realised that she knew where the door was.

Dizzy and slightly dazed from the effort in cracking the restraints she stumbled forwards already trying to steel herself for the effort of breaking out of the room.

But the effort never came.

Because the door opened from the outside.

"Woah woah, let's just hold it right there for a second short, pale and freaky."

* * *

"Woah, woah, let's just hold it right there for a second short, pale and freaky."

Clint Barton knew that on most occasions he could be a sarcastic asshole.

But he had nothing on Tony Stark.

As soon as the door opened Tony walked in without a care in the world. Clint thought Stark probably would have done the same thing even if he hadn't been right behind him, arrow notched and ready, aimed right between the girl's eyes.

"Where am I? Who the hell are you? WHAT'S GOING ON!?" she yelled at the two of them, hands raised, the air around her palms seeming to shimmer slightly.

"Don't be stupid." He warned and Tony nodded in agreement.

"Let me go"

She had an accent that Clint couldn't place but that wasn't really his main focus right now, just one of the many things he picked up as he carefully observed the girl and listened to the ensuing situation.

She was short. And skinny. Truth be told she looked damn tiny especially stood in comparison with Stark and himself. The kid, Clara had been pretty accurate in her description of this chick as a "ghost lady". She was pale. Not just pale, death white, even her lips seemed to have been bleached out. Her hair which was cut in a shaggy mess to just above her shoulders was a mix of white and pale grey strands and her eyes were such a pale shade of grey that they may as well have been white also. He could see the reason that in the CCTV footage she wore the scarf across her lower face.

Stars.

Or what looked like stars. Tiny silver white marks that looked like stars stretched up the side of her neck and scattered across her right cheek the highest one being right on the corner of her right eye.

She was young too.

 _"Too young"_ he thought _"To be dealing with whatever the hell's put that look in her eyes"_

"Let. Me. Go." She repeated, the accent he had detected thickening slightly the slower she spoke.

"Erm no. No that's not gonna happen." Tony said almost happily as he leaned against the closest wall with his hands casually in his pockets. "But what is gonna happen is your gonna let my friend with the pointy arrows here" he pointed at Clint "Put these really, really neat restraints on your tiny little hands - seriously how small are you? - then you are going to sit in a chair and answer any and all questions put to you by my other friends. Understood?"

"Eat shit! You're gonna let me out of here or I'm gonna-"

"You're gonna what sweetheart you're gonna-" Tony started to interrupt with a smirk but Clint cut them both off when he said as loud as he could

"What's your name? HEY! What's your name kid?"

Silence descended on the room.

"Look at me, hey, hey! Look at me, not him, me." Clint said and when she finally turned away from Tony to look at him, he raised his hands and made an obvious show of lowering his bow.

"Now, believe it or not, I genuinely don't want to hurt you. This guy" he jerked his head in Tony's direction "I really cannot tell you what he wants to do. He's kind of a dick. But me" he gave a tired chuckle "Hell I'm meant to be retired. At home. With my kids. So because I don't want to hurt you, I'm going to tell you something then ask you something ok? My name's Clint. Clint Barton. What's your name kid?"

Up until now, the girl had had her hands raised, palms pointed at him and Tony. At hearing the earnestness behind Clint's words, she faltered slightly.

She didn't lower them completely.

But a little.

"I" She swallowed and blinked "I don't know."

"That's ok" Clint took the revelation in stride "It's ok, you want to know why? Because I know people who can find out who you are. Anything you don't know they can probably tell you. And they can definitely tell you your name. But you gotta trust me kid. I'm not gonna let anyone hurt you, I promise, but I cant let you hurt anyone either. So here's what we're gonna do ok. You're gonna let me put the cuffs on ok, but just the cuffs. I wont let anyone put that shit back on your hands. Then me an you, we're gonna walk outta this room, and we are gonna work out what the hell is going on here. That sound ok?"

Clint looked earnestly at her and waited for a response.

Finally, the girl lowered her hands.

She took a deep breath and jerked her head once in ascension.

"Ok."

* * *

"You know maybe we need to make Barton our official babysitter. I mean first his kids, then Maximoff, now this chick..." Tony tailed off at the look that Bruce Banner was giving him.

"What?" he asked with a shrug.

"I'd keep any comments about Maximoff to a minimum around Rogers and Barton." Bruce warned as the two of them looked through the one way window into the interrogation room where Clint was sat leaning back in his chair, across the table from the girl who's hands were cuffed to the table top.

The door behind Tony opened and he straightened up slightly as Fury, Hill, Natasha and Steve entered the room.

"Let me guess, you found out who the walking snowflake is." Tony snarked before anyone could say a word, causing Natasha to roll her eyes.

Maria spoke up

"Yes we did." She pressed a view buttons on her tablet and then swiped up and a hologram projection of a file with the girl's image flickered into life in the air.

"Meet Lianna Cortova."

* * *

 **Bam!**

 **Chapter four done!**

 **So "short, pale and freaky" has a name.**

 **Let me know what you think guys.**

 **I hope I got Stark's attitude right at least.**

 **More soon.**

 **Geronimo xx**


	5. Everything has limitations

"Meet Lianna Cortova"

Natasha raised an eyebrow as she looked from the picture to the girl in the room with Clint.

"Someone's had a makeover" she said coolly and everyone in the room privately agreed.

The image that was hovering in the air was definitely the girl in the room but she looked remarkably different. Her hair was long, stretching past her shoulders down her back and was a rich auburn colour. Her eyes were green, she looked markedly younger and there were no star marks on her face.

"Lianna Cortova. Born December 9th 2001 in Chicago Illanois, moved back home to her father's home country in 2004. He was originally from Sokovia."

There was a slightly uncomfortable pause after that until Maria cleared her throat and continued

"We have records of her and her family living there until-"

"Until we destroyed it all?" Tony said bluntly and Maria frowned down at her tablet.

"Actually no. I have records of them up until the summer of 2013 and then this."

She swiped right and a new page of the file appeared this time with the image of a burning car.

"Car accident, July 21st 2013. The whole family was inside, William Cortova 48, Nina Cortova 45, Cyntia Cortova 76, and Deano Cortova... 7 years old." Maria said gravely.

"But not her?"

"That's where it gets interesting. CCTV footgae from that day shows her in the car all the way until we lose a visual on them. They crashed in a blindspot for cameras but all intelligence says that she was in that car when it crashed." Maria explained "We're still searching for a Hydra connection."

"Well we know Hydra have a thing for making shit look like a car accident" muttered Tony darkly and Natasha placed a calming hand on Steve's arm as he tensed and made to step forwards.

"Well" Nick said "Let's go see if what we have so far jogs any of Miss Cortova's memories."

* * *

Clint let the front legs of his chair swing back and hit the floor when the door to the interrogation room opened and Fury walked into the room, tablet in hand.

"Agent Barton" he nodded at Clint who got up from his chair and retreated to the corner of the room "Miss Cortova" and Nick sat down across from Lianna.

"Who..." she started to say and Clint wondered if she was going to ask who Fury was or who Lianna was.

"My name is Nick Fury. And you" Nick slid the tablet across the table that had the file open on it "are Lianna Cortova. You're 16. Your family is dead. You disappeared for 4 and half years. And you've put four people in the hospital since arriving in the U.S. Anything you care to add?"

Lianna stared down at the photograph and profile in her file like she didn't believe it.

"That's me?" she asked softly, the finger of one of her cuffed hands stretching out like she wanted to touch the image.

"Yes. And now here's some things you should know about me. I don't like people coming to my country and using whatever power they have to hurt people. I don't like it when that person tries to control good people and I don't have very good patience levels when I think i'm being fed some bullshit story about memory loss. Now, I'll ask again. Is there anything you'd like to add?" Nick said staring intently at Lianna.

She didn't speak for a moment. Just stared at the old image of herself.

Then-

"Are they alive?"

A pause

"The people I hurt. Are they alive? Will they be ok?"

Nick though his face and voice didn't show it was actually surprised at her response

"Prognosis looks positive." was his only reply to which Lianna nodded.

"Good" and then she said a little more quietly "I don't want to hurt people."

There was a knock on the door and Maria stuck her head inside.

"Sir" she said gesturing for him to leave the room. Nick got up and made the same gesture to Clint, getting him to follow him.

"Commander?" Nick asked once they were out of the room.

"We found her. We found where she was for those 4 years." Maria said as Clint stood to the side, still listening intently.

"Well?"

"Strucker. She's another one of Strucker's experiments, just like the Maximoff's." Maria said and at once Nick seemed pissed.

"Get Maximoff down here now!"

"Sir I already spoke to her she had no idea, and besides Cortova wasn't kept or tested on in Sokovia. She was never in the same facility as Wanda or Pietro. But she does have a connection." and here Maria handed a file to Fury, who scanned it quickly and went

"huh. Well how about that."

"Sir?" Clint asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"When you gave chase in Chicago you said she was fast Barton. Now we know why. And we know why she jumped three floors out of a warehouse window without batting an eye."

"Holy shit." Barton said his eyes widening "Yeah. That would explain it."

"Agent Barton I want you to take over questioning." Fury said suddenly, like he had just made up his mind.

"Me? What? Wait why?"

"You got her to calm down once. She may not trust you but you've got the start of a connection there. Use it." Fury said "I want to know what, if anything, she remembers and what we can use. Pretty sure she wont talk to me."

"Permission to ha- wait I don't need to ask your permission anymore."

Fury clenched his jaw at that but nodded.

"I'm gonna need Wanda. And a few other things."

Maria nodded.

"I'll get Wanda down here now"

"Hey erm Commander?"

"What is it Barton?"

"Think you can order me a pizza?"

"I'm sorry what?"

"Pepperoni and mushrooms? Extra pepperoni? I swear it'll make sense."

Maria gave him a quizzical look but nodded and then left the hallway via a door on the left.

"What the hell are you playin' at Barton?" Nick asked curiously. When Clint didn't answer, Fury began to head back towards the observation room.

"Ya know, I think I know why you don't think she'll talk to you, but you think she'll talk to me." Clint said.

"Oh really? Why's that?"

"She's a kid. And you're not a dad."

Nick let out a wry chuckle before turning and walking away, saying as he did.

"Good luck Agent Barton."

* * *

"Clint?" Wanda had appeared through the door that Maria had gone through, hands in the pockets of her faded red zip up hoodie, and a look of confusion on her face. "What's going on?"

"I need a favour. And it's weird."

"Well that's an interesting start?" Wanda said, taking her hands out of her pockets and folding her arms. "What do you need?"

"The smallest clothes you own."

* * *

"Lianna?"

It took her a moment to respond to that name, it still felt foreign to her even though the evidence of who she was, was as clear as day on the tablet in front of her.

"Hungry?" Clint asked holding out the pizza towards her.

Before she could answer, her stomach did that for her and let out a loud growl.

"I'll take that as a yes" Clint chuckled moving and sitting opposite her.

He picked up a slice of pizza and slid the box across the table. Lianna struggled to manipulate the cuffs to get the slice she picked up to her mouth. Clint watched her for a minute before sighing and saying nonchalantly

"I'm probably going to get in trouble for this but..." and he paused to undo the cuffs "...I'm a grown ass man, think I'm a little old for a time out. What?" he asked because Lianna was staring at him, her pale eyes shocked and confused.

"Eat. You look like you haven't eaten in days."

"I haven't" was the response before she shoved almost the entire slice of pizza into her mouth.

They both ate in silence for a moment.

"This is good" Lianna mumbled through a mouthful of melted cheese and pepperoni "This is..." she though for a moment "This is pizza right?"

Clint raised an eyebrow at this but that was his only reaction to this question.

"Yeah it's pizza. You know that already or you just remembered it?"

She shrugged

"I don't know. I think I knew. I just forgot."

"But you remembered" Clint stated "Remembered anything else. After what Fury told you?"

Another shrug

"Lianna, believe it or not I really do wanna help you, but you gotta start bein' honest with me."

Lianna wouldn't look at him and on impulse Clint reached across the table to touch her hand.

The effect was immediate. Lianna jerked away from him, swallowing the last bite of her slice and nearly choking on it as she pulled away from him.

"Hey, heeeyy" Clint said easily slowly sitting back in his chair and raising his hands to show he meant no harm "Easy. I told you I wasn't going to let anyone hurt you, that's me included. But you do need to start being honest with me, or I'm not gonna be able to help you."

Lianna looked at him for a long minute, before abruptly standing up from her chair.

"Kid. Lianna. Sit down. Please. Your skin and goddamn bones. Eat and then freak out on me."

Finally Lianna acquiesced and sat back down. Clint smirked and shoved the box towards her once more.

Clint watched as she scoffed down another 2 slices in quick succession.

"When was the last time you ate?" Clint asked and Lianna shrugged not meeting his eyes.

"I don't know. A few days, maybe more. I uh, it's a little hazy. Haven't eaten since I've been in America. So yes, a few days"

Her accent was even more noticeable now, and it reminded him of Wanda's voice when they had first met. Even as he considered this there was a knock at the door. At once, Lianna's eyes were on the door, her whole body tense, ready to fight or run, Clint couldn't tell.

"Easy kid" he said partly in comfort and partly in warning against any attack she may be considering.

Clint stood up and went to the door. When he opened it, Wanda was stood there, a small bundle of clothes in her hand.

"Hey" he smiled and Wanda smiled back, though her eyes darted behind him to where Lianna was watching the pair warily.

"How's it going?" Wanda asked quietly and Clint shrugged glancing over his shoulder

"Slowly" he muttered "Just need her to open up at least a little before Fury decides to play a little more hardball. Thanks for this" he said taking the clothes from her "Now I just gotta sneak her upstairs before Fury finds out and loses his shit or before she decides to try and fry my brain or whatever weird juju shit she can do."

* * *

"What do you mean he told her about the kids?"

Natasha sounded more shocked than Steve had ever heard her sound before as Tony recounted what had happened when he and Clint had accosted Lianna as she tried to flee.

"Surprised me too" Tony shrugged "I mean he only told us cause he had to. Not cause he wanted to."

"You don't think she got in his head do you?" Natasha said, full of concern for her friend.

"I don't think so. Not with her weird juju shit anyway" Tony said "otherwise why wouldn't she have gotten to me to?"

"Did she touch him?" Steve suddenly spoke up and Tony looked at him with a strange expression.

"No. And why the hell does that matter?"

"Because I think that's how she got to Buck."

Tony's jaw instinctively clenched at Barnes name. Steve ignored this and turned to Natasha

"Think about it. She didn't do anything until she made contact with him. And Stark's got a point too. Why didn't she get us too?"

"Because she couldn't touch us" Natasha said slowly, nodding her head as Steve began to make sense.

"Exactly"

"Very clever Captain"

Tony, Bruce, Natasha, Vision, Sam and Steve all turned to look at Fury who had just entered the room.

"And you're absolutely right. Would you like to know what else she can do?"

* * *

Lianna stared around the pristine white tiled room.

The man, Clint, had detached then reattached the cuffs from around her wrists so that her hands were now behind her back and then led her down a corridor, up a set of stairs and round three corners until they had past through a room with equipment. She vaguely recognised it as exercise equipment and winced as a memory flashed to the surface.

 _A man in a white coat_

 _Running on a treadmill_

 _Wires attached to her body_

 _A mask over her face_

 _"She's no soldier"_

 _"She doesn't need to be"_

"Lianna?" Clint's voice broke through the thought and she blinked, looking up at him. "You alright?"

She nodded without speaking and then cocked her head as she looked around the room.

"Showers are through that door" Clint answered the unspoken question gesturing to a plain polished opaque glass door to their left "Figured you might wanna clean up a bit. Here" he removed the cuffs and then held out the bundle of clothes, to which Lianna just looked at them. "Go on take 'em. I don't know if they'll fit, but they're the smallest my friend could find."

Slowly Lianna reached out at took the bundle. She held them in her handles and stroked the soft material of the shirt. Her own clothes had clearly seen better days; a well worn shirt that may once have been white, and a faded light grey hoodie, that stretched down over a pair of grey jeans, tucked into the tops of battered and broken combat boots.

Clint pushed open, and held the door to the showers open for her. Lianna took a step forwards and then her eyes widened and she took a step back again. It took Clint less than a second to work out why

"Relax kid. I'm not gonna watch you. I'm hopin' I can trust you not to do anything stupid. Because I really don't wanna have to shoot you. Again. I'm guessin' you don't want that either."

Lianna shook her head in agreement vigorously and Clint chuckled.

"Well that's that. You don't make me shoot you and I wont shoot you. Now go get cleaned up."

* * *

"Turns out Strucker was far busier than we knew. Cortova is one of his. From the looks of the data we seized from his lab, she is his and therefor Hydra's little hybrid." Fury began to explain.

"Hybrid? What do you mean?"

"Our techs have been over all the information and here's what we know. They spliced her DNA with three separate genetic materials. The DNA that they combined with hers belonged to Wanda and Pietro Maximoff... and one James Buchanan Barnes."

A stunned silence filled the room.

Everyone fell silent as they took in the new information.

Natasha kept her usual stoic face though her mind was racing.

Steve literally to a step back.

Tony for once was lost for words.

Finally, it was Bruce who spoke up.

"Ok. What did that achieve?"

"Her abilities can be categorised into three separations. Miss Maximoff's DNA gave her telepathic abilities. Her brother gave her increased speed and Barnes DNA, given that it was embedded with serum, increased her reflexes and strength. But for all intents and purposes, Strucker seemed to have deemed her a failed experiment."

"Tell that to Barnes" Natasha muttered darkly.

"How so?" asked Vision, speaking up for the first time.

"Everything has limitations when it comes to her. Her telepathy is almost completely limited to contact only. She's faster than average but nowhere near as fast as Pietro Maximoff was and I seriously doubt her strength and reflexes is anything close to Barnes or yours Rogers." Fury explained "So yeah, in Strucker's eyes she was a failed experiment. He wanted an all powerful weapon, a combination of Hydra's three most powerful experiments. But like I said. Everything has limitations. Miss Cortova is no exception."

As everyone processed this, Maria Hill appeared in the doorway, a grim expression on her face.

"Sir. You need to see this."

* * *

 **Ta da!**

 **Wow that was long to write.**

 **Let me know what you think! I love hearing from readers.**

 **More soon.**

 **Geronimo xx**


	6. You dont talk about Mexico

Clint sat absentmindedly fiddling with a loose arrowhead, only vaguely listening to the sound of the water running through the wall.

He flipped the arrowhead over before slipping it back into his pocket and stretching saying as he did so

"Man I hope I was right about this." He muttered to himself.

The sound of running water stopped.

A few minutes later, Lianna slowly emerged from the shower room. She was now wearing the clothes he had received from Wanda, and even though Wanda was small, the clothes still seemed too big for the girl's slight frame. A deep red t-shirt that on Wanda must have been fitted, but on Lianna was loose and baggy. An old pair of black sweatpants (that Wanda used to wear for combat training with Steve) were the only things that seemed to fit properly, but the dark grey zip up hoodie was clearly to big and hung down past her butt to her mid thighs. She was fiddling with the material of the sleeve which hung over her hands slightly and in her other arm she held a small bundle which must have been her own clothes.

Clint got to his feet and smiled at her.

"Feel better?"

Lianna nodded and Clint was surprised when her mouth twitched slightly into a hesitant almost smile.

"Come on" Clint gestured towards the door "Let's go and-"

But he didn't get to finish the sentence as suddenly Fury barged into the room, followed by Maria, Steve, Natasha, Tony and two unknown Shield agents, both of whom had their weapons drawn. Natasha had her hand on the gun at her waist, as did Maria. Tony's hand was encased in armour.

Only Steve and Fury appeared unarmed.

"Miss Cortova, I'm gonna need you to put your hands on your head and get on your knees." Fury said calmly but deliberately.

"The hell's goin' on Fury?" demanded Clint, looking between the group and Lianna who had dropped her bundle of clothes and was bouncing on the balls of her feet like she was preparing to run, fists clenched and trembling slightly.

"You're new best friend talked a big game about 'not wanting to hurt anyone' didn't she? She forgot to mention the two bodies she dropped Kiev."

Clint's head snapped round to look at Lianna, who wouldn't take her eyes of Fury but who bit her lip and blinked in reaction and Clint felt his heart sink slightly.

"Do what he says snowflake!" said Tony, his armour encased hand aimed at the young girl's heart.

Clint could see Lianna trembling.

No not trembling, her hands were shaking violently and the air around them was starting to warp. Without thinking Clint jumped forwards getting between Liana and the guns that were aimed at her.

"Agent Barton move back. Move back now that is an order!" Fury barked.

"I don't take orders from you anymore. Lianna, Lianna look at me! Look at me!"

Slowly Lianna brought her eyes to meet Clints and he said earnestly but firmly

"Tell me what happened. You said you didn't wanna hurt anybody and I believe you meant that. I. Believe. You. So tell me what happened. Just me. No one else is here okay? It's just you and me and I wanna hear your side."

Lianna looked at him with baleful eyes, before saying through a tightened jaw, her accent more pronounced than ever

"They tried to make me forget again. But I couldn't, this time it stayed or he stayed and I-I knew I had to run. I didn't want to hurt them, I just wanted to get out but they fought too hard and I couldn't control it and then they were just...gone."

"They were a little more than 'gone' weren't they Miss Cortova. You fried their brains. They bled out internally."

"I didn't- it was an accident yes. I don't want to hurt people, yes. I would change it if I could, yes. But they were bad men, cruel men. So I am not sorry that they are gone."

And then all the fight seemed to leave the girl in front of Clint. Her trembling hands dropped to her sides. Then with a look of broken resignation she did what Fury had instructed her to do in the first place. She put her hands on her head and all but fell to her knees.

Clint watched as Fury nodded and the two nameless Shield agents moved forwards keeping their guns trained on the kneeling girl. As they did so, Tony moved around her and pulled out an odd looking pair of handcuffs. Instead of just the wrist manacles, there was a domed metal guard that covered Lianna's hands as Tony pulled her arms behind her back and attached the restraints.

"Make sure she's secured. I want a guard on her at all times." Fury said as the two Shield agents frogmarched Lianna past Clint and out of the room.

At once Clint rounded on Fury

"The hell? I was gettin' somewhere, she was openin' up!"

"You were babying a murderer" chimed in Tony and Clint glared at him.

"I am _telling you_ that girl has been through HELL! How can you not see it?" he snarled getting in Tony's face.

"Hell or not, your little experiment is over until we get a better picture of what the hell we're dealing with!" Fury said, clearly putting an end to the stand off between the two. Clint looked between Tony and Fury glowering, before he scoffed and exited the room.

"We sure she didn't get in his head?" Tony said sceptically and Natasha rolled her eyes and followed Clint from the room.

"Ouch. Everyone's a little touchy today!"

* * *

"Clint. Clint! Don't make me chase you down Clint!"

Clint stopped and turned to see Natasha walking up behind him.

"If you're gonna rip into me Nat, I'm really not in the mood right now."

"I can see that. First time I've seen you square up against Tony and thought you really meant it. Even defending Wanda didn't have smoke comin' out your ears like I saw just then." Natasha said coolly, folding her arms as she continued "Do you want to clue me in on why this girl has you so rattled?"

"I'm just frustrated with this whole goddamn thing. We took on Wanda and Pietro less than 24 hours after they kicked the ass of everyone on this team except me. Why is no one even willing to give this girl the benefit of the doubt? Or at least as themselves that if she was so goddamn dangerous and an enemy to us, why did she let Barnes go?"

"Valid points" Natasha nodded before quirking an eyebrow "Now tell me why you're _really_ so riled up."

Clint sighed and leant against the wall, while Natasha stood calmly opposite him.

"Mexico City."

This caused Natasha's brow to furrow ever so slightly

"You don't talk about Mexico. You never have. Not even to Laura."

"You want me to stop?"

"Not a chance" smirked Natasha "So. Mexico City. Are you saying she was there?"

Clint shook his head. His eyes had taken on a sort of far away look. Like he was there. But not there.

"Not her. The Mexico op was a shit show from the start. Bad intel, civilian casualties, and... and Ella Consuelat."

Natasha frowned

"That name's not in the files."

Clint shot her a look to which she shrugged unconcernedly and said

"What? I'm a spy Clint. It's what I do. Besides, I checked it before we were friends."

Clint chuckled dryly and shook his head.

"Of course you did. Anyway, I asked Fury to keep it out of the official report. I was still new to Shield, and this..." he swallowed like what he was about to confess was difficult for him to say "this hit me hard."

Not looking at Natasha he continued the story

"There was a cartel running out of the west of the city. los reyes demonios. Drugs, weapons all that but they somehow got hold of information regarding hundreds of undercover agents. They were going to sell it so we got sent in to recover the drives. But Los Reyes? They had an...upgraded security system. Enhanced. Mutants who either volunteered or weren't given the choice."

A quick glance up at Natasha who was watching him with an impassive face.

"We knew they had Enhanced as guards we were unprepared for how strong _and_ how many normal soldiers they had. We were takin' heavy fire. Then I see one of my team, Declan, just go up in flames. Then another one, Ashley. Then another, then another. Fifth time it happened I saw where the flames came from. Saw movement and took the shot."

Clint ran a hand over his face and exhaled before continuing.

"I found her body when it was all over. Arrow, still in her head" he tapped between his eyes "right here. And an electroshock collar round her neck. Turns out Ella Consuelat was abducted from Puerto Vallarta two months before, after word got out about her powers. She accidently set fire to a warehouse in the city, a warehouse owned by Los Reyes. They found her, took her. Told her she could work for them or they'd gut her family. I only found out about all this after. She didn't wanna be there, hence the shock collar. And I killed her. She was fifteen."

"Clint" Natasha said softly "Clint you cant blame yourself for-"

"I can and I do. I've killed god knows how many people but... but hers is the only face I still see when I shut my eyes."

"Cortova reminds you of her." Natasha said with new understanding and Clint nodded once.

"Yeah. Maybe it's the ages, maybe it's the fact their both enhanced."

A steely glint entered his eye and his voice

"Or maybe I just don't want another dead girl in my head every time I fall asleep."

* * *

 **Ta da.**

 **I hope this is okay. I'm really trying not to make anyone to ooc or anything but because my story is slightly au it may turn out that way.**

 **To the person who mentioned me not including Peter in this story, I promise I have always intended to put peter in this story it will just be at a later point. He will make an appearance I promise.**

 **More action to come.**

 **Let me know what you think, hearing from you guys inspires me to write more and I like hearing feedback and ideas that you want to see.**

 **More soon.**

 **Geronimo xx**


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